01/31/2012

Bird of Paradise in Anaheim

Welcome! Today I'm finishing a few days in Anaheim and heading back to the land of perpetual winter tomorrow. (They say that we have just two seasons in the U.P.--Winter and the Fourth of July.) While it's not really that drastic, you would never see bird of paradise growing outdoors there. I took several pictures of outdoor flowers while I was here so that have some new sketching material when I get home, but I had to sketch this one right away--such an exotic flower!

Here is my pencil sketch, with some Copic Grey 0.3 Multiliner lines on top of the pencil. It was a pretty quick sketch, and when I started rendering with marker, I found some things that I need to change. If I wait for time to post perfection, however, it could be a few years!

Since I had worked too close to the edge of my sketchbook (yes, I need a larger sketchbook), I laid a sheet of natural white Copic marker paper over my original and quickly transferred the lines before rendering in Copic marker. I may try this again at home after correcting a few spots in the initial sketch first, but this will work for now. Thanks for stopping by!

I took pics of these too! Did you stay at the Marriott? I was room 533. I stopped by the Copic booth when i had a short break, but didn't see you. I spent most of my days in the tombow booth teaching make n takes

As a California florist, I can honestly say you've captured the Bird of Paradise perfectly. There are other colors, but they are rare, and the rarest is 10 times larger and shades of blue and cream. I only saw that one once, at the San Francisco Flower Market. Bought it for $15 and it croaked the next day. But it was worth it, just to see something that awesome that probably grows in abundance in some faraway jungle.